Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, in the United States. The population was 86,911 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, Killeen had 119,510 people. In 2010 Killeen's population shot to 127,921. It is a "principal city" of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area. Killeen is directly adjacent to the main cantonment of Fort Hood, and as such its economy heavily depends on the post and the soldiers stationed there. In 1881, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its tracks through central Texas, buying 360 acres a few miles southwest of a small farming... community known as Palo Alto, which had existed since about 1872. The railroad platted a 70-block town on its land and named it after Frank P. Killeen, the assistant general manager of the railroad. By the next year the town included a railroad depot, a saloon, several stores, and a school. Many of the residents of the surrounding smaller communities in the area moved to Killeen and by 1884 the town had grown to include about 350 people, served by five general stores, two gristmills, two cotton gins, two saloons, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel.
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| County: | Bell County |
| State: | Texas |
| Population: | 127,921 |
| Area: | 35.4 sq. mi. |
| Time zone: | Central Time zone |
| Also known as: | Killeen, Texas, Bell County / Killeen city |